Love and Loss: A Treatise on Attachment
by lembas7
Summary: Excerpts from the thesis of a Senior Padawan. Student ID: krill-osk-wesk-0000002974383576. Submission date: 3622:05:33. (Series: The Stylus is Mightier than the 'Saber.)


Excerpts from the thesis of a Senior Padawan. Student ID: krill-osk-wesk-0000002974383576. Submission Date: 3622:05:33.

* * *

 **Section 1: Foreword**

Herein is undertaken a philosophical examination of the conflict inherent between the modern Jedi Code as it is currently known and practiced, and the nature of sentience – as it is defined by the possession and expression of emotions within an evolutionarily natural part of non-human, human, and near-human biological and cultural development. The focus is on the canons of the Jedi Code pertaining to attachment.

One of the most basic markers of sentience, contained in the definition of such(1), requires that a sentient being is: _"Capable of the conscious, subjective experience of emotion."_ Emotion itself has a variable definition with a wide range of expressions within the galaxy, including at its far ends a highly empathic floral species found on Felucia, to the semi-insectoid Geonosians…

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Psychological studies on the sentients which comprise the Galactic Republic demonstrate that an overwhelming majority demonstrate some form of emotional awareness, with a scant 7% failing to register on any relatable emotional scale. Within the 93% who demonstrate emotions recognizable across species barriers, 89% of these species internally register the subsets of their populations which experience emotions in a non-uniform manner as either deficient or deviant…

*#*#*

…within human and near-human species, emotional deviations from the norm have been referred to by a variety of labels including socio/psychopathy. Efforts are made, where possible, to classify such beings within a range of personality disorders or otherwise seek management of the condition through behavioral modification or medical aid. Statistics reflect a higher propensity among beings diagnosed with such a disorder to devalue other sentient life, with an unsurprisingly high likelihood that said beings will demonstrate an increased propensity for violence in comparison to baseline….

*#*#*

…compassion, which is not currently perceived as a canon of the Code inasmuch as a necessity. Empathy with other sentient beings allows a Jedi to connect with those beings one interacts with; indeed, such empathy is a vital means of communication…

*#*#*

However, compassion itself is the very quality of experiencing emotion on behalf of another. Particularly, it involves empathy for the misery of another; and more than a lack of desire to see another suffering, it is an active desire to prevent another's suffering.

The balance struck by the Jedi is a precarious one. The Code demands that we strive for emotionlessness in our decisions; influenced by none of the natural and common emotions most sentients experience daily: anger, grief, love, fear, jealousy, desire, or hatred among them. While this emotionlessness is in some instances a necessity for even basic access to the Force and for more highly technical Force skills, counterbalancing that necessity of emotionlessness is the absolute requirement that the Jedi maintain their compassion for other sentient beings.

Without compassion, some would argue, what is the quality of one's own life? Beyond that concern, to which every being will answer differently, is a more serious issue. Without compassion, what separates the Jedi who successfully follows the Code from those beings afflicted with a disorder that affects their ability to feel emotions? In one instance, the lack of emotion is voluntary, and in the other, involuntary; and for both, the greatest danger is apathy toward life.

The true quandary is that an Order dedicated to service and preservation of life, seeks in many ways to purposefully emulate those elements of society which by their very emotionless nature are less likely to place value on life; while simultaneously demanding that despite seeking to remove the influence of emotion in their actions, the Jedi maintain compassion – a quality which is deeply rooted in emotion for other beings.

It may be that compassion is made necessary by the Code's proscription against emotion. Certainly the outcome least desired is a Jedi who, having achieved perfect emotionlessness, finds himself indifferent to the value of life. Accordingly, the ideal therefore is a Jedi in perfect balance of the continuous struggle between emotionlessness sufficient to perform one's duty, and emotion sufficient to appreciate the importance of one's duty.

* * *

 **Section 2: History**

The Modern Jedi Code, as it is practiced today, cannot be fully understood without knowledge of the history underlying its development and institutionalization. This is especially true given the multiple variations of the Code and its opposition among users of the Dark Side over the millennia, and how these variations influenced the early Je'daii and Sith, culminating over a thousand years ago in the Sith Wars. In the aftermath of those Wars, the Ruusan Reformation wildly restructured the Je'daii as it had existed for tens of millennia prior, leading to the Jedi Order of today which bears little to no resemblance to the Orders of our Forebears.

The Je'daii Order is widely held to have been founded on Tython around 32,800 BTC, existing even prior to the Rakatan Infinite Empire and a fully established body by the time of the Unification Wars. The Force Wars from 22,140 to 22,130 BTC are the first recorded conflict between Light and Dark side Force Users; a full ten millennia after the initial gathering of philosophers, scientists, priests and warriors who would become the Je'daii. Following this conflict the Jedi High Council was officially formed and the Je'daii of old became commonly called Jedi.

It was not long after the initial formation of the Galactic Republic (21,400 BTC) that the Jedi, who had for over ten millennia lived in peace in the Deep Core world of Tython, relocated to Ossus on the Outer Rim, in order to remove themselves from the new government's burgeoning influence. But soon after this relocation the Order experienced the First Great Schism (20,847 BTC), with scores of Jedi departing to study arts forbidden under the traditional hierarchies.

Such division could not be peaceful, and indeed resulted in conflict that enveloped planets all the way the Core; following which the Jedi removed themselves from the Republic for five hundred years, until the Tionese War (20,347 BTC). However the sterilization of the planet of Desevro by the Republic convinced the Jedi to remain separate, though the dissolution of the Republic's federal navy at the conclusion of the War (20,247 BTC) prompted the Jedi to form the sect of Watchmen to protect the Perlemian Trade Route…

*#*#*

…In response to the Pius Dea Crusades, the Order severed ties with the Republic and once again retreated to Ossus in the Recusal of 8,280 BTC. There, the Order remained for the next eight hundred years….

*#*#*

The Second Great Schism (3,350 BTC) marked the split of the Jedi Order once more, with those Jedi practicing the dark side of the Force and the use of alchemy diverging from the main Order. Three years later, the Hundred Year Darkness began, marking a series of conflicts that would span from 3,347 to 3,247 BTC. The Dark Jedi were defeated at the Battle of Corbos, but fled to Korriban and their interbreeding through alchemy with the native species there gave rise to the Sith Order. For over two thousand years, the Old Sith Empire developed in isolation before it rediscovered the Republic…

*#*#*

… The Great Hyperspace War (1,347 BTC) brought peace for some thousand years before the Sith re-emerged, plunging the Galactic Republic into a series of conflicts beginning with the Third Schism in 597 BTC; the First Sith War in 343 BTC; the Mandalorian Wars of 323 to 311 BTC; and finally the Great Galactic War in 28 BTC. That conflict claimed the lives of thousands of Force-users, Jedi and Sith alike, before concluding in the Sacking of Coruscant and subsequent Treaty of Coruscant; which point the Galactic Standard Calandar still marks as Year 0.

However, instead of true peace, a Cold War ensued for the next eleven years. The Republic, with the Jedi, maintained control of the Core and a scattering of Mid-Rim planets; while the Sith maintained their Seat of the Empire in the Outer Rim with solid inroads to the Mid-Rim. Following the Treaty, the Sith's association with Mandalore ended – in part due to the Mandalorian's failure to maintain their blockade of the Hyperion Hyperspace routes…

*#*#*

From the inception of the Je'daii on Tython in 32,800 BTC through the destruction of the Great Jedi Library on Ossus at the start of the First Sith War (343 BTC), the Old Code was the foundation for all teachings on the Force. It endured for tens of thousands of years and is known even now, though only as a beginner's meditation for crèchelings: _Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force._

The change in the Code to the doctrine of modern times is attributed solely to The Teachings of Master Odan-Urr, compiled in 347 BTC (four years before the Master's own death at the hands of Exar Kun, starting the First Sith War in 343 BTC). In fact, the New Code was developed and introduced into practice some several hundred years prior, though on a much smaller scale. From the permissive Old Code, which acknowledged the existence of emotion, ignorance, passion, chaos, and death, came the prohibitive New Code: _There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force._

The writings of Odan-Urr reflect a confusion in the Order at the time of his study, as to the real meaning and import of the Code; his redevelopment has since been characterized as an attempt to clarify and refine the Code. Indeed, Odan-Urr himself in his later journaling states a desire to "clarify" the Code and render it more understandable. He speaks at length of his feeling that few Jedi truly understood the Code; and that only with true understanding of the Code could come true mastery of the Force. Whether he achieved his aim is debatable; likewise, whether he "clarified" the Code or instead imposed his own interpretation is also uncertain.

However, the Ruusan Reformation (2,653 ATC), occurring nearly one thousand years ago, brought drastic changes to the Jedi both practically and ideologically. The Army of the Light was dissolved, with the Jedi renouncing their military titles. The decision was made to begin training from birth, rather than at older ages, to reduce the chance of a Sith resurgence. And it was after the Reformation that the Canons of the Code were developed and implemented, becoming as much a part of the modern Jedi Code as the thirty-six words that form the meditation mantra itself.

* * *

 **Section 3: There Is No Emotion**

The source of all debate and policy on Attachment is the first line of the modern Jedi Code: _There is no emotion, there is peace._ This revision of the previous Je'daii Code's _Emotion, yet peace_ delineates in verbiage alone a shift in doctrine from permissive to prohibitive as to the subject of emotion. This doctrine shift is carried through in all other lines of the Code as well, signifying a significant change in mentality from the previous tens of thousands of years of teaching.

The Modern Code (or "New Code") was not a novel invention at the time of its institution. Prior to the Ruusan Reformation, the Je'daii Code (or "Old Code") was the most widely known and practiced; but the Modern Code was also in use among a smaller subset of practitioners, mainly located on Garel, Arbooine, and Jedha with less than two-dozen smaller sects scattered throughout the Outer- and Mid-Rim. Some minutes of the High Council dating to 984 BTC suggest that knowledge of the Modern Code even reached the Core prior to the Third Great Schism (597 BTC).

Master Odan-Urr, widely credited with developing the Modern Code, can be more properly said to have institutionalized it. While the Great Library at the Temple on Ossus was ruined during the First Sith War, some writings surfaced during excavation in 1,838 ATC which suggested that Master Odan-Urr's interpretation was heavily influenced if not lifted entirely from a Code in use on Kirrek around 692 BTC and brought to Ossus by a traveling Jedi Scholar some unknown time after.

It is clear from these early writings that Master Odan-Urr's Code was in all aspects initially focused on the _act of_ reaching for the Force: those moments in which a Jedi purposefully seeks to manipulate the energy that binds the universe together. In isolation, therefore, the proscription against emotion for _the moment of_ reaching into the Force is logical for most beings afflicted with emotions.

It is not impossible to use the Force while experiencing emotion; the opposite in fact, as distraught younglings have been frequently known to use the Force in their distress, and Dark Jedi and Sith routinely channel the Force through emotions. For beings of lower Force sensitivity, however, it is easier to touch the Force when at peace than in the throes of emotion; for when in the latter state, one must move past the emotion, be it positive or negative, to reach a place of calm from which to simply feel the Force's existence within oneself.

However, this precept is joined with certain viewpoints in Odan-Urr's later writings, which suggest strongly that it is the goal of a Jedi to be _constantly_ cognizant of the Force. While nowhere in Odan-Urr's surviving writings does the Master proscribe a Jedi to live a life free of emotion, his reformation of the Code and later views on omnipresent connection to the Force led some scholars to conclude that the lifestyle of a Jedi should in all aspects seek to follow the prohibitions of the Modern Code. It is a conclusion which this author posits to be both extreme and unnecessary in light of the history of the Je'daii.

The writings of Master T'Luvan Rekk in 2,658 ATC can be properly said to be the first recorded contemplations of the modern Canon prohibiting attachment for Padawans: _"I find myself questioning the appropriateness of such a relationship for a Padawan of tender years; for in truth the tumult I have observed within my own Padawan only increased upon zir agreement with another. Meditation now takes half-again as much time for zir to achieve the stillness of self required for low-level Force manipulation…"_

*#*#*

* * *

 **Section 4: Canons of the Code**

Complicating any analysis of the Code are the Canons which, while not explicitly contained in the Modern Code (it is, after all, only thirty-six words) have been derived from its implications and integrated into Jedi culture and lifestyle to such a degree they are considered part of the Code itself. Doubtless this was the intention of the Jedi Council following the Ruusan Reformation, given the numerous writings on this subject by Councilors and Scholars including Master Fae Coven, Grandmaster of the Order following the Ruusan Reformation until her death in 2,759 ATC.

Those Canons which impact every Jedi, regardless of whether that individual pursues a future as a Knight or in the Corps, include the prohibition on attachment; the one master, one student rule; and both maximum-age prohibitions. Other, separate tenets apply to the divisions of Consulars, Guardians, Seekers, Sentinels, and Corps depending on specialty; still more apply specially to Healers, Shadows, and Councilors. However, only the prohibition on attachment; one master, one student rule; and crèche admittance age maximum deal in whole or part with the overarching issue of attachment and will be discussed at this time.

 ** _I. Prohibition on Attachment_**

If the modern Jedi Order is considered contiguous with the earlier entity of the same name which pre-dates the Ruusan Reformation, then the Prohibition on Attachment as it exists today is relatively new (only 1,000 years old) compared to the over 35,000 year history of the Je'daii. However, it may not be possible to equate the modern Jedi Order with the Je'daii who existed from the time of the development of hyperspace travel through the Hundred Year Darkness and accompanying Sith Wars in the era immediately preceding the Ruusan Reformation. Such has been the impact of the Prohibition on Attachment.

Before the Ruusan Reformation one millennia ago, Jedi were free to love, and marry, and have families without any behavioral restrictions imposed by the Order; and more often than not, they did so.

The historical roots for the Prohibition on Attachment date back to the Hundred Year Darkness. In the thirty-five millennia preceding the Ruusan Reformation, dynasties of Jedi and Sith rose and fell with great conflict and consequence for the galaxy. Bloodlines would develop, with families in some cases purposefully seeking to breed strong Force-users. This behavior is now stigmatized, but was common and considered natural before the Reformation. The conflicts that resulted are well-documented in multiple other sources, and were contemporaneously attributed in no small part to ideological differences.

It is only through historical analysis that the responsibility for said conflicts was laid primarily at the feet of the so-called "dynasties" of Force users generally, rather than the specific cultural and ideological idiosyncrasies – and in several cases, outright murder – to which each conflict was attributed at the time. And while the Jedi's history is riddled with wars spanning decades and centuries, the times of relative peace far outweigh the periods of war.

However, the Prohibition as it exists today is not the same Prohibition initially put in place immediately upon the restructuring of the Order following the Reformation. That Prohibition applied only to Padawans, in the context of romantic relationships, and was not even formally named as such until more than two hundred years after its inception. The reasoning was as follows: Padawans on the path to Knighthood not only experienced extreme demands on their time in terms of studies and fieldwork, but were also passing through new biological development in the form of reproductive maturation; which impacted their ability to meditate, master new skills, and sometimes even to touch the force beyond newly-fluctuating emotions. Though the evidence in support of a negative impact on a Padawan's ability to touch the Force is thin, outdated, and academically open to criticism (based on no small part on the small sample sized and methodology of the sole study), what _is_ solidly documented is the potential for increase in an individual's midichlorian count as training to Knighthood progresses.

In the current day, the Prohibition on Attachment has been culturally extended to apply to all members of the Order of Knights, though the four Corps are still exempt. Within the orthodoxy practiced by the main Coruscant Temple, no Jedi has married for over four hundred eighty-four years – the sole exception to this was a specially-granted dispensation due to species endangerment of the Council member in question. In the still-existing satellite Temples, that precedent is not followed as strictly, but the ratio of non-married to married Jedi is near three-hundred to one; with the Corellian Temple hosting the highest number of married Jedi at nineteen. Not a single one of the thirty-four married Jedi within the Order is pledged to another Jedi. The last marriage which took place was more than a decade prior to the writing of this analysis.

In this study, emphasis must be placed on the cultural aspect of this Prohibition. Nowhere in the Canons, policies or guidelines ratified by the High Council is there an explicit mandate against relationships for Knights or Masters – only Padawans. Yet there is a stigma which appears to persist in today's common mindset. The teachings all focus only on the benefits of abstention rather than the benefits of attachment; which latter concept in itself is an idea so foreign as to broach on heretical.

In the modern tradition, Jedi do not marry, have children, or engage in Force-bonding deeper than the Master-Padawan training bond. Exceptions to this socially-enforced behavior are few, far between, and rarely spoken of.

 ** _II. One Master, One Student Rule_**

Within the first decade following the Ruusan Reformation, the Council approved a mandate restricting teaching Masters to one Padawan apiece. This was a subject hotly debated even since before the Reformation, stretching back to the dueling dynasties of Jedi and a school of thought that one Master with multiple students risked devoting insufficient attention to each individual so as to miss a slide into Darkness, or inadvertently breeding jealousy between students to prompt Darker tendencies. In reality there was little support of these notions, which were widely disproven by a culture of communal living which emphasized teaching and the joy of sharing knowledge.

However, the election of Master Silysa Nahe-Tor to a lifetime position on the Council in 2,661 ATC resulted in a change in the political distribution of that body. For eight standard months she advocated for the institution of a rule limiting Masters to one Padawan; in a strategic negotiation regarding distribution of funds for Temple Reconstruction, her policy was passed on a probationary basis. Throughout the remainder of her forty-seven year term she advocated the policy until it was customary rather than probationary; on her death, one of her former Padawans took up the cause and within three years the restriction became not just Jedi policy but a Canon of the Code.

When advocating for the rule's institution, Nahe-Tor and her supporters articulated their reasons primarily as a means ensuring adequate supervision of students - to avoid Padawans delving into study of Darker subjects. The key examples used to demonstrate the necessity of such supervision number only two – Exar Kun, and Uliq Qel-Droma. The fact that both were Knights when they embarked on their studies of Dark objects and fell to the Sith was largely ignored. Emphasis instead was placed on the followers Kun and Qel-Droma led astray and the expansive, devastating conflicts each instigated.

Another main reason Nahe-Tor proposed was the benefit of the Master being able to devote more time and attention to a single Padawan's development rather than splitting attention between multiple students. Upon close examination however, this "reason" appears only to be an alternate spin on Neha-Tor's feelings that younger Jedi needed to be more closely monitored lest they venture into dangerous areas of study and Fall into Darkness.

More interestingly for the purposes of this study, there is frank discussion of ancillary reasons for this rule, including reducing bonds between Jedi themselves. While no extant documentation outright states a desire to avoid the creation of pseudo-family groups, there was explicit mention of a perceived need to reduce the number of bonds maintained by individual Jedi. Prior to this policy, it would seem that the bonding by a Master of multiple Padawans would result not only in the Master maintaining multiple training bonds but the students pairbonding as well. Nahe-Tor's one master, one student rule effectively eliminated the latter practice. To date, pairbonding remains a practice only acknowledged to exist between Knights or Masters permanently paired for fieldwork; though there are indications of much more frequent pairbonding between Jedi which goes deliberately unacknowledged.

The benefit of reducing a Jedi's number of bonds has not yet been the subject of any serious study; in fact, given that the rule was instituted in a wave of changes following the Reformation, the number of Jedi with multiple bonds was reduced before proper comparison could be made – if indeed anyone thought to do so. There are more recent studies which indicate untrained Force Users generally form and maintain multiple bonds with those close to them, including familial bonds, with little detriment outside of instances of sudden death of a bondmate. Such individuals tend to have higher midichlorian counts; however, further study is required before these hypotheses may be relied upon.

 _ **III.** **Crèche Admittance Age Maximum**_

Every Jedi accepted to the crèche since the Reformation has passed the first maximum-age requirement which affects the course of said individual's training; that is, the Order will not accept any to the crèche who has aged beyond the equivalent of five years(2) for their species.(3) The reasons for this restriction are multiple, and many of the logic chains underlying the initial institution of this rule are ultimately tied back to the Prohibition on Attachment. Indeed, in the Minutes of High Council meetings in the first eighteen years following the Ruusan Reformation, the precept of obtaining Force-sensitive younglings for raising and training in the path of Jedi was frequently fiercely debated.

The concern was primarily the attachment of the infants and younglings to their family units or rearing parent(s), which could comprise a single individual or, for species such as Arconans whose personal identity is rooted in their nest, a community of fifty or more individuals of varying maturities.(4) At the equivalent age of five or six standard years, the youngling is cognizant of their guardian(s), evolutionarily emotionally invested in a connection with said guardian(s), and for the most part experiences distress and/or trauma at the sudden absence of said guardian(s) from the youngling's life. This problem is seen across younglings of most species regardless of level of Force-sensitivity; but it is compounded in younglings who exceed the minimum threshold of midichlorians currently set for admission to the crèche.(5) Such younglings frequently have a Force-bond with their rearing parent(s) in addition to the emotional ties inherent in the vast majority of such relationships, species-wide.

It is standard procedure for the Masters on Search to mute and sever these Force-bonds, in order to ease the youngling's transition to the crèche. Studies from Healers over the centuries prove that regardless of species, the more immature the youngling, the easier the severance of the bond. This is generally a function of the age of the bond itself, and the fact that most of these bonds are formed at or immediately following the infant's birth.

All younglings released to the Jedi by their guardian(s) undergo bond severance, detaching them from all connection to their former lives. This process is not without trauma, even with the most skilled Healer gently unravelling a newly-formed bond. All infants are monitored for at least six months for failure to thrive resulting from bond severance, as that is the most common – and most potentially dangerous – side effect. Younglings approaching the maximum-age limit for crèche admittance undergo a year of close observation by the Healers in order to monitor the severed bond; follow-ups continue for an additional two years to ensure no further complications.

These selfsame studies document the increase in likelihood of potential complications from family-bond severance as a youngling ages. However, this rise is gradual, with no sharp spike apparent at any particular age. From the Minutes of the Jedi High Council in the first two decades following the Ruusan Reformation, in which the concept of an upper age limit for acceptance to the crèche was first proposed and debated, there does not appear to be any argument for a specific age limit of acceptance based on an increase in trauma at a certain age from severed bonds. Ages as disparate as two to twenty-five years were debated, with the merits of each exhaustively debated. It is clear from the content of these debates that trauma from bond severance did not facet into the discussion. The question remains: why?

One hypothesis is that the repercussions of bond severance were not considered, because newly-accepted Initiates were not required to have their prior bonds severed in the first place.

Whatever the reason, it is apparent that the ultimate decision to set the maximum age of acceptance to the crèche at five standard years was almost arbitrary; with concerns of ease of integration into social units, and in training prospective students to a uniform standard, taking precedence.

* * *

 **Section 5: Canon Conflation**

The canons of the modern Jedi Code cannot be wholly divorced from one another. Though their historical development has been disparate, the underlying reasons for the canons often overlap in the same way the canons themselves do.

Simplistically, the Prohibition on Attachment has the widest reach, being the first instituted. It is clear from the descriptive explanations and meeting minutes recording the debates on this topic that the Prohibition was never intended to become the extreme absolute which is practiced today. Indeed, the Prohibition was never even labelled as such until 2,885 ATC. For the two-hundred thirty odd years prior to that, it was simply found as a relationship restriction within a series of loosely-interpreted guidelines for Knights with Padawans, along with suggestions for balancing a Padawan's academics with fieldwork, appropriate portions of free time based on species, and references to aid in developing a successful teaching style.

Challenges to the One Master, One Student rule began to receive opposition on the basis of arguments pertaining to attachment from around 2,664 ATC until such challenges ceased entirely by 2,707 ATC. Defenders of the rule argued in part that history supported a need to closely supervise Padawan studies, reduce the competition and jealousy between Padawan's for a Master's attention, and provide increased support for Padawans in training. Yet the examples proffered were, as stated earlier, inapplicable at best. In addition, the argument itself was internally inconsistent regarding the theories of attachment – acknowledging an attachment between Master and Padawan while simultaneously arguing against the formation of _additional_ attachments between Master, Padawan, and other Padawans.

Regardless, counter-arguments that restricting Masters to one Padawan would increase competition between Initiates and negative feelings between those unchosen were refuted by the then-valid and short-sighted reply that Masters outnumbered students. One opposition that saw some success against the One Master, One Student rule was the generation of a Force-bond between the pair when the Master had prior links to another student or students. However, as increased training for Padawans was mandated and other administrative changes restructured the function and purpose of the Order, exposure of Knights and Masters to Initiates was reduced, thereby reducing the opportunity for such bonds to form naturally. Over time, it has now become rare that a Master and Initiate will bond before selection of the Initiate as a Padawan, simply given lack of opportunity for such to occur.

It is impossible to discuss the Crèche Admittance Age Maximum without discussing the extension of the Prohibition on Attachment to newly-admitted younglings. While initially, the Prohibition was unrelated to the practice of severing infants' prior family bonds, in a series of bizarre and not completely logical arguments the two became conflated into justifying each other during 2,719 ATC. This was a year in which the Jedi saw a higher than average refusal rate from parents, combined with an increased number of Initiates who had been admitted beyond the age of five standard choosing to leave the Order entirely and return to their families upon failure of their Initiate Trials or redirection to the Corps.

Subsequently, the practice of severing an infant's family bonds by the Jedi on Search became formalized policy of the Acquisitions Division, for the vague stated purpose of _"compliance with the Code"_ as opposed to the prior reasons based on ease of emotional integration into the Order.

* * *

 **Section 6: Attachment**

The most peculiar aspect of the Jedi's attitude toward attachment lies in the absolute reversal between the practice of the Jedi and of most cultural norms which require nurturing of the young for survival of the species. While Jedi certainly nurture their young, species such as Xranth'l, Arconans, and other group, hive, or flocking species which require communal living to prosper have a significantly decreased presence in the Order as compared to pre-Reformation, and well below the ratio of their species percentage to the wider Galactic population as a whole. While the condition is rare even in the crèches, human and near-human Jedi younglings are three times as likely to suffer from failure to thrive as the average non-Jedi youngling of comparable species; a significant percentage of which is medically attributable to the loss of their family bonds.

Now, when a youngling's bonds are severed the justification is to remove all prior attachments that may hinder the individual's eventual training. This mentality was recently compounded by the Fall of Padawan DuCrion, which occurred in association with renewed contact with his biological family as part of his Trial of Spirit. Padawan DuCrion was nearly beyond the Age Maximum when discovered on Search. His parents initially refused to give him up when he tested above the minimum at six months of age, but his strength in the Force eventually put him beyond their ability to manage and when approached a second time, they relinquished him to the Order. He was monitored for a full five years, two more than standard, following the severance of his bonds.

*#*#*

Culturally, the Jedi Prohibition on Attachment and its attendant proscription against future bonds precludes the formation of the bloodlines of strong Force-Users collectively blamed for conflicts such as the First Sith War. Within the current Order itself, Lineages persist in lines of teaching from Master to Padawan and so forth – but pseudo-family units are nonexistent and the Lineages may be easily broken. This has resulted in a reduction in the bonds between individual Jedi on the whole.

*#*#*

Every Jedi has undergone some form of emotional/psychological trauma before ever entering the crèche, in the severance of their familial bonds – rare is the youngling who comes to the Jedi with no such bonds already in place. It is ironic in that the very policy put in place to prevent the eventual Jedi from feeling emotional disruption is a source of emotional trauma; and, should the youngling fail to be chosen as Padawan and decline assignment to the Corps, the lack of bonds formed naturally with family at and after birth complicates the youngling's return to their family unit.

*#*#*

* * *

 **Section 7: Conclusions**

This paper theorizes that the Prohibition on Attachment, named as such in 2,885 ATC after being formalized in that year from previous guidelines, has been extended far beyond its original bounds to the detriment of the Jedi Order.

As a result, individuals admitted to the Jedi Order suffer the severance of their familial bonds before the age of six standard years old. They are trained to follow the Jedi Code, which forbids attachment in the form of familial and romantic love; preventing any revival of that type of bonding later in life. Under the Code, Jedi are restricted to training bonds and pair bonds and in the rare instance, twin bonds; life bonds are near mythical and marriage bonds anathema. In all other ways, the life and teachings of a Jedi emphasize emotionlessness as the desired state, while also requiring the Jedi to maintain sufficient emotion to practice compassion – a cognitive dissonance with no resolution which is extremely difficult to maintain.

Maintaining a restriction on relationships for Padawans carries certain undeniable short-term benefits. The percentage of beings in Jedi whose Padawan years generally align with the years of burgeoning reproductive maturation, continued growth, or physical entrance to adulthood approximates seventy-two percent. In this time the hormonal balances of the beings are changing, causing more upheaval biologically. Additionally, Padawans have incredible workloads of academics and apprenticeship duties – in one sense, the rule against attachment is no different than the parents of a similarly-aged being restricting romantic entanglements.

However, the remaining twenty-eight percent of species comprising the Order are not subject to even similar biological upheaval, experiencing it later or not at all; thus no biological benefit can be intimated to occur as a result of the restriction.

Furthermore, over the time the prohibition has culturally extended to Knights and Masters, who have attained sufficient mastery of self to allow for the introduction of deeper emotional connections and upheaval while still maintaining their ability to process these emotions and use the Force. Yet as the new Code and its interpretations have evolved, there is less training for mastery of deeper emotional connections. While there is discussion of it between Padawans and Masters, little support exists for knights who are venturing into this realm without a master's guidance – leaving some to falter and more to shun the attachments further out of a sense of duty or discomfort – which in itself is troubling. And there is indication that a surprising and statistically significant subset of modern Jedi did not actually realize that the prohibition against attachment ended with Knighting.

The end goal of most of these restrictions – from training younglings from birth, to training in restricting of emotion – has been articulated by most implementers as a desire to prevent grand war on the scale of which Force-users are inherently capable; with a side-benefit of avoiding the deliberate breeding of strong Force-users and the rise of dynastic bloodlines. There is no denying that the Schisms and Sith Wars resulted in catastrophic death tolls.

Yet, there is also no denying that universal peace is a near-impossibility; the Jedi still exist in the function of peacekeepers as there is a need for the peace to be kept. If that premise is accepted as true, then the Jedi as it stands are caught in a never-ending spiral – the lives of individual Jedi are structured so as to reduce the resurgence of Sith and prevent death; while the goal of the Jedi is to keep peace, which of necessity requires the existence of war and death.

Nor is it successful. The fall of Padawan du Crion is only the most recent example.

The Lost Twenty reflects a shame of the Order: Knights and Masters who renounced the Jedi. But only twenty over the last thousand years reflects less than 0.00214% of Jedi trained in that same time. No mention is made of the Jedi who leave the Order before Knighthood – between failures of the Initiate Trials, younglings who age out of consideration for Knighthood and elect to return to their families, Corps-members who leave service, and Padawans who discontinue their training, the loss of population from intake to the crèche to Knighthood or lifetime Corps service is an alarming 19.35%. Of these, 14.56% specifically cite to or have their files noted with an inability to maintain proper emotional control.

Whatever the goal of Master Odan-Urr, it is clear that his interpretation of the Old Code was subject to further implied restrictions following the Ruusan Reformation, some millennia after his death. His interpretation of the Old Code and the doctrine shift from permissive to prohibitive, allowed the Canons to derive further restrictions from the Code's syntax, resulting in the current Jedi training regime and lifestyle which promotes both emotion and emotionlessness simultaneously. This dichotomy is difficult to balance for any being, and yet the fact remains:

In the war-spotted history of the Je'daii, over twenty-thousand years long, it is only in the last millennia that such restrictions on "attachment" were deemed necessary. Yet our history reflects timeframes triple to quadruple the current period of "peace" in which no such strictures were implemented and no devastating war broke out.

The number of formally trained Jedi declines every year; yet there is no evidence that the number of Force-sensitives across the galaxy has depreciated in any perceptible way. Rare is the instance in which misuse of the Force or even Darkness has come to the Jedi's attention – less than a dozen instances are documented since the Reformation.

It is clear that a statistically significant percentage of population loss to the Order is attributable in some form to the restrictions and policies on attachment in place.

There is further evidence of trauma to younglings brought to the Order and the potential for continued emotional/psychological damage due to the removal of and restrictions on bonds.

The question then arises: in the face of reduction of numbers and deliberate emotional damage inflicted on the Jedi by our own interpretations of the Code, what proven benefit has the current Canon on attachment brought to the Order?

* * *

Footnotes:

(1) Utilized by the Galactic Republic in defining sentient life upon the discovery of new species or official introduction of new cultures upon application to join the Republic.

(2) Galactic Standard Time

(3) As humans and near-humans combined comprise the largest species population by percentage within the Republic (at 39% per the last Galactic Census), their baseline maturation cycle is used as the standard both within the Order and the Republic at large for age-related restrictions, with other species varying from this mean in accordance with the life expectancy tables set out by the Republic Retirement Administration.

(4) For a discussion on the decline of inclusion of species based in family-group units within the Jedi Order, see: The Vanishing Peacekeeper: Anthropological Perspectives on the Modern Decline of the Jedi Order.

(5) Further discussion of the role of midichlorians within restructuring of the Jedi following the Ruusan Reformation, see: The Vanishing Peacekeeper: Anthropological Perspectives on the Modern Decline of the Jedi Order.

* * *

Instructor Remarks:

Received by Master ThLarresh Asg'yon, Instructor on Advanced Code Theory, on the 33rd day of Month 5, Year 3,622 ATC.

Grade: Passed, Above-Average.

MARKED FOR COUNCIL REVIEW.


End file.
